Student School Agreement

Student/School Agreement

All incoming students must sign

I recognize that the only purpose of POCA Tech is train punks for the POCA Cooperative, and that POCA Tech would not exist without the personal sacrifices of many Co-op members.

I understand that part of POCA Tech’s role as an acupuncture school is to be a gatekeeper for people entering the acupuncture profession: to prepare graduates to be independent healthcare practitioners. Clinical supervisors are obligated to address situations in which they feel an intern’s judgment, maturity, emotional stability, temperament, and/or attitudes may make punking a poor fit as a career. Clinical supervisors may create plans for improvement for students (subject to approval by the Clinic Circle) to follow as a result of identifying these situations. Interns are obligated to fulfill these plans for improvement; failure to do so will result in failing clinic evaluations.

POCA Tech assumes that student interns in clinic are on their best behavior because they're being supervised. Our role is to make sure graduates are prepared to practice without our supervision. We have to assume that students might behave less well when nobody is watching. So if student interns struggle with being on time, on being attentive and responsible to patients, with following procedures and complying with laws, etc., we have to assume that these problems will all be worse when they’re not being supervised. And that means we can’t in good conscience advance them through the program.

I recognize that it is possible to fail the clinic portion of the program.

I also understand POCA Tech has a responsibility to fulfill its mission, which is to recruit and train students to provide acupuncture to underserved communities through the People’s Organization of Community Acupuncture (POCA), and to establish an academic foundation for the practice of liberation acupuncture.

POCA Tech’s educational structure was designed by employers of the POCA Cooperative to fulfill its mission and goals. If the faculty, administration, and/or clinic supervisors of POCA Tech receive the impression that students either lack commitment to providing acupuncture to underserved communities through POCA (examples: letting their POCA membership lapse, arguing about needing a POCA membership, questioning the graduation requirement), don’t recognize the contributions of the patients and volunteers of the co-op to their education (example: being dismissive of volunteers), aren’t receptive to the education designed by the employers of POCA, or are not planning to fulfill their post-graduation commitment, the school may take corrective action, including but not limited to warnings, probation, and termination.